


Ways to Make an Entrance

by unorigelnal (jayburding)



Series: Multiple Origins AU [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Crack, Fluff and Humor, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 04:07:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4165173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayburding/pseuds/unorigelnal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short fic within the Multiple Origins AU I share with <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/thejerseydevile">thejerseydevile</a>, inspired by a glitch in the Grey Warden Armour mod.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ways to Make an Entrance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thejerseydevile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejerseydevile/gifts).



It has taken a while, but they’ve finally found space to breathe and a break in the schedule wide enough to allow for Duncan’s memorial, and the drinking that would inevitably follow. Vigil’s Keep is decked out as befitting for a fallen Commander. Most of the Wardens here have never known any Commander other than Aeducan- and for a brief, very enlightening period, Surana- but they rise to the occasion in a fashion befitting the symbol they wear.

It is a long day, and by the evening they are well into their cups. Only their original group remains, the survivors from Ostagar, the others having long sought their beds. They who had all been recruited by Duncan, and had known him, even if it had only been for a short time.

Alistair has already said his piece during the memorial, and shared what moments he felt he could later around the table, so he is content to let the others tell their stories. Cousland tells them a little of what happened at the castle, skirting around the darker facts. Tabris gives a similarly abridged account of her first encounter with Duncan: they do not need to revisit old territory and their associated hurts now. Aeducan tells of meeting him in Orzammar, the first of them to be recruited, and the weeks that she spent just learning the surface before Alistair arrived.

“I did miss your ‘I’m going to fall into the sky’ period didn’t I,” Alistair says, smiling soft and wistful, and takes Aeducan’s responding smack with good grace.

“Duncan was rather more merciful about that than you might have been,” Aeducan says with a half-hearted scowl. Beside her, Surana nods like her head isn’t securely attached, halfway through her third drink beyond what she should really have been allowed.

“He didn’t laugh when I wasn’t used to the weather,” Surana adds, peering down into her drink, “and I got blisters, and got stuck in the mud, and had no idea what a tent was, let alone how to put it up.”

There’s a ripple of laughter at that: Surana’s not the only one who was quite clueless when out in the world. Amell appears to be blushing into her drink just thinking about it. They’ve all heard her bear related episode on the way to Ostagar by now.

“He saved my life,” Surana says into the natural hush that follows; quieter now. “I’d only met him in passing in the library once, and he still stood against the Knight Commander on my behalf. Without the Wardens, I’d be Tranquil at best. I never thanked him for that.”

She winces almost immediately. “That wasn’t appropriate. I’m sorry.”

Surana sets her glass down to one side and shifts so she can lay her head on Tabris’ shoulder, blatantly hiding. Tabris is quite content to let her stay there, twining their fingers together beneath the table and holding tight.

“It’s ok, Surana,” Aeducan says with a weary chuckle. “There’s very few Wardens that come to it with pleasant stories to tell. This is about as happy as the endings get.”

“We killed a dragon,” Cousland chimes in, more than a little red in the face this late into the evening. “An Archdemon. That’s a pretty happy ending.”

“And we only destroyed half of Denerim to do it,” Tabris replies.

“Half is better than none,” Alistair says.

“Yes, you would think that.”

Aeducan raises an eyebrow at that. Alistair just laughs.

“I’m not even sure what you’re trying to imply, but if it is what I think it is, I’m pretty sure your wife is shorter than mine.”

Surana makes a sound that might have been mistaken for a giggle. “I think he’s got you there.”

Amell is silent for most of this, still contemplating her drink with an inscrutable expression, and catches an elbow in the ribs from Cousland when she misses the next round of laughter as well.

“What about you, Amell?” he asks with a gentle smile. “You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“There’s nothing much to tell,” she says, eyes still firmly on her drink. “You know it all from Surana.” Her returning blush gives her away.

“Looks like lies to me,” Aeducan laughs and lifts her glass to Amell. “He wasn’t a bad looking man if you liked that sort of thing. No shame there.”

Alistair splutters, looking positively horrified by the insinuation. So does Amell.  
“What? No! Maker no!” She cries with a vicious shake of her head. “Why does everyone keep assuming that?”

“Ah yes, you had that thing for the Templar instead didn’t you,” Cousland says with a positively evil look. He cops a punch to the back of his head for his trouble.

“I met him in Irving’s office,” Amell says with the air of someone having their teeth forcibly removed without their permission. “They were foregoing the ceremonies because several of us were Harrowed at once, but Irving still wanted to formally present me with my staff, so I went to his office…”  
She trails off and takes a long draw from her glass.

“And?” Cousland asks, a little too keen and doing a poor job of smothering his snickering.

“Irving and Greagoir were arguing, and Duncan-” Amell pauses again; drinks again.

“Enough of the suspense,” Tabris grumbles. “How bad can it be?”

“What could he possibly have been doing if the First Enchanter and Knight Commander were there?” Surana asks, mostly to herself. The laugh that emerges from Amell is nothing short of hysterical.

“Seriously, what was it?”

“He was naked, ok?”

The collective spittake is quite spectacular, though only Alistair chokes on his drink to the extent that Aeducan has to thump him hard on the back to stop him suffocating.

“What?”

“Naked?”

“She said naked, right?”

“Yes,” Amell says with her head in her hands. “Yes, I said naked.”

“Ok, we’re going to need a lot more than that,” Cousland says, his expression is some strange place between revolted and elated. “Duncan was naked. This was while Irving and Greagoir were arguing.”

“No one said anything,” Amell says, still muffled by her hands. “They were arguing and he was naked, and he saw me, and he told them to stop because I was there, and they did and Greagoir left, _and Duncan was still naked and no one said anything!_ ”

“So Duncan was naked,” Aeducan says, a picture of calm as Alistair continues to hack and splutter beside her, though she’s failing to completely hide the gleam in her eye. “Then what?”

“I don’t think that’s a ‘then what’ situation,” Tabris snorts, wearing a baffled expression more usually seen on Surana. “He was naked is pretty much the whole situation. That’s enough, isn’t it?”

The silence from Amell is a little too weighted to be innocent.

Cousland cackles. “There’s more isn’t there!” he crows as Amell groans and lifts her head, her expression the very picture of despair.

“Irving introduced me to the Warden Commander like he wasn’t buckass naked in his office,” she says, utterly deadpan, “then Duncan told me all about the Grey Wardens like he wasn’t buckass naked in Irving’s office, and then Irving asked me to escort Duncan back to his room like he wasn’t going to be buckass naked outside Irving’s office and all through the senior enchanters’ quarters.”

Surana blinks, her mouth twitching like she’s trying not to laugh. Might as well be cackling for her. “Imagine Leorah’s face. Or Torrin’s.”

Amell giggles, high pitched and irrepressible, trying and failing to smother them in her hands. “No one else noticed, just me. It was like he hadn’t noticed either.”

Alistair makes a noise somewhere between a squeak a whimper. Beside him, Aeducan is struggling to maintain composure. Cousland, laughing himself sick and clapping Amell on the shoulder, has clearly given up on that a while ago. The elves look largely unflustered, but Surana is deadpan as a way of life and seems to have passed that on to Tabris somewhere along the way.

“Are you sure this wasn’t some kind of Fade dream?” Cousland asks when he manages to catch his breath to speak. “Duncan might have had his moments, but last I checked he didn’t go for rampant nudity in public places.”

“I wish,” Amell says, downing the last of her drink and peering plaintively into the empty glass. “I don’t think I’ve ever legitimately hoped I was possessed before. I was convinced it was a Harrowing induced hallucination for a while, but after that Fade walk we did when we went back to the tower, I doubt that.”

“So what was it then?” Tabris asks, Surana nodding off on her shoulder. “You’re telling me Duncan just felt it appropriate to wander around the Circle with nothing on? Is that a thing you mages do?”

“Last time I checked, Surana and Amell didn’t make a point of wandering around naked,” Aeducan points out, chuckling into her palm. Alistair is now the one with his head in his hands, making sounds like a dying druffalo.

“Pretty sure it was permanently scarring, whatever it was,” Cousland almost manages to say with a straight face.

Amell matches Alistair’s renewed groaning. “I’ll drink to that if someone else is buying.”

“Anything to make this stop,” Alistair replies, practically leaping from his seat.

“So…” Aeducan says. “You walked Duncan back to his room, still starkers, and nothing happened after that?”

“I didn’t sleep with Duncan!”

“Protesting awfully loudly isn’t she Aeducan?”

Another punch to the back of his head for his trouble. “Screw you!”

“Is that an offer?” He ducks her next attempt, still grinning. Aeducan outright cackles.

“Void take the lot of you,” Amell growls, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I wish naked Duncan down on all of you.”

In light of new revelations, it was a fitting memorial for the late Commander.


End file.
